IWOM watch September: We are the Chinese Youth Generation!

Chinese Youth are the first generation of Chinese “net natives”, this group is unique, creative, passionate, brave and care about their society. In this issue, CIC looks at what Chinese youth like and how they create IWOM based on recent events.

Firstly, we found that they threw great patriotic passion into supporting the CCP’s 60th birthday by sharing the amazing rehearsal pictures/videos using their time honed BBS copy/paste skills, and then we see them spread and discover “grass-root beauties” across BBS’s. Secondly, we see the emergence of a new net slang term “烎(Yin)” which represents brave and persistence. Finally, we keep an eye on netizens’ spoofing companies by pretending that they have gone bankrupt and show how NONOPANDA, a cute cartoon image has managed to attract netizens attention both on and offline.

Case Study

NONOPANDA spurred latest youth creativity world
无知熊争艳近期年轻创意世界

Summary
NONOPANDA, a cute cartoon image created by Lin Wuzhi (a Shanghai-based amateur animator and cartoon designer) is starting to become quite popular online.
Following the tradition of collecting and recreating classic Chinese Youth (especially 80’s) cartoons that netizens watched in their childhood, the ‘NONOPANDA’ cartoon series is starting to become very popular. What’s more, NONOPANDA accessories are now being sold by the author and are also receiving good feedback from netizens (see here).

CIC View
Nourished by China’s ever growing Internet and easy to use creative software, starting with Tuzki back in 2007 the popularity of net cartoons has only continued to rise. (CIC latest launched Youth Report focused specifically on this trend.)
However unlike previous images, NONOPANDA stepped up and outshone other cartoons after the author integrated nostalgic emotions into his creations, which then proceeded to ignite numerous discussions among the 80’s generation, a generation who with so many choices at their disposal are easily bored. Meanwhile, as well as rapidly growing in popularity online, NONOPANDA offline accessories were then quickly rolled out by the author, which may mean that there is an opportunity for brands to get involved with this cartoon.
Considering that creating ‘Entertainment’ content has long been a key way to connect bored youth with fun-seeking activities, by combining those fading childhood memories/experiences into a new format, a comical panda may be a creative way to connect with the youth of today.